Social Entrepreneurs
What is social entrepreneurship?
The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, an organization that trains social entrepreneurs, defines Social entrepreneurs as people who drive social innovation and transformation in various fields including education, health, environment, and enterprise development. Social entrepreneurs pursue poverty alleviation goals with entrepreneurial zeal, business methods and the courage to innovate and overcome traditional practices. A social entrepreneur, similar to a business entrepreneur, builds strong and sustainable organizations which are either set up as not-for-profits or companies.
Purdue Burton Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship
The Purdue Foundry exists to help Purdue students, faculty, alumni, and partners
move ideas to the marketplace more quickly. The Foundry is a place to transform
innovators into entrepreneurs by providing advice on entity formation, ideation,
market analysis and business model development. We are focused on helping
individuals at Purdue who have business or product ideas and want to turn
them into companies. The process and passion for the success of each company
is driven by the entrepreneur with the support of the Foundry to help them
succeed. To learn more visit Purdue Foundry.
Classes
Within the Burton D. Morgan Center resides the Certificate in Entrepreneurship and Innovation Program, administered by the Office of the Provost. The program will soon offer a course in social entrepreneurship to students in all majors. Student teams will work with select EPICS teams or select their own projects to help develop a plan for sustainable social businesses.
Competitions/Funding Opportunities
Purdue World supports a number of competitions and funding opportunities for social entrepreneurs. Social startups that qualify become eligible for a number of funding opportunities and competitions. Purdue World will also help prepare and connect eligible startups to networks of impact investors.
Social Entrepreneurship Resources
The following is a list of organizations and conferences for social entrepreneurs:
